Friday, March 7, 2014

INDYCAR, the sanctioning body of the IndyCar Series, announced Friday morning the revamped qualification format for this year's running of the Indianapolis 500.

Held Saturday, May 17 from 11am to 5:50pm (4-6pm LIVE ABC television window), the 33-car field sans starting position will be locked into the grid. If more than 33-cars are attempting to make the race the traditional Sunday bumping of cars into and out of the field will take place Saturday. All cars will be guaranteed one four-lap qualification attempt, with more runs permitted if weather and time allow. Race Day pit position will be locked by Saturday qualifying.

Sunday morning, May 18 from 10:15am to 1:30pm (1-3pm LIVE ABC television window), the 10th through 33rd seeded qualifiers from Saturday will be required to requalify to lock their position. Each car will be allowed one attempt with the cars running in descending order from slowest to fastest from Saturday's provisional runs.

The Fast Nine Shootout will take place Sunday afternoon from 2-2:45pm. Like earlier in the day, Saturday's fast nine will be allowed one attempt in descending order from slowest to fastest with the quickest aggregate time winning the Verizon P1 Award.

With morning practice each of the two qualification days, additional race trim practice is expected to be added post-qualifying in the week leading up to Sunday's Indy 500.

"This new format includes two exciting days of on-track action, all culminating on Sunday with the Fast Nine Shootout," said Hulman Motorsports CEO, Mark Miles. "Fans get to watch their favorite drivers battle to make the field on Saturday, and then fight for a pole position on Sunday. It will be a great show for fans attending the race and watching the broadcast on ABC."